Tuesday 28 January 2020

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner 2020


So how was your reunion dinner? Ate in or ate out? This year, we ate out. Last year there was no celebration.

Our reunion dinner took place at Kingdom Palace@3 Damanasara. Ours was the second session at 8:00pm which meant that we could take our time to enjoy our dinner.


When we got there, there was a crowd waiting outside. So we hung around and waited for our table to be ready.


The menu looked promising and we were all happy with the dishes. There were only 8 of us, so there was plenty to go around.


Fresh Salmon and Crispy Fish Skin Yee Sang. This is always my favorite at any Chinese New Year dinner.


I had many helpings hee..hee...


Next up was the Braised Bird's Nest Soup with Crabmeat, Crab Roe and Seafood. It's something like shark's fin soup and I enjoyed it. 


I could have had an extra bowl but I was saving space for the rest of the dishes.


Crispy Roasted Duck ooohhh...la...la.... I loved this. I am now a converted roast duck fan for many years now. Previously I only liked roasted chicken. How silly of me.


This Steamed Tiger Dragon Garoupa was my favorite dish of the evening. The flesh was very fresh and firm. I don't often get a chance to eat such fantastic fish and I savored every moment hah..hah...


Fried King Prawns with Crispy Salted Egg Yolk. I am not much of a prawn fan but that did not stop me from enjoying these prawns.


Braised Abalone, Mushrooms and "Shi Zi Tou" with Yam Cube. I don't know what is "Shi Zi Tou" and I am guessing it is those meatball things (which were the best item in the dish). 


Fried Glutinous Rice with Waxed Meat in Hong Kong Style. This is lap mei fan, right? I was looking forwards to it but I was a little disappointed. I found the rice too dry and I had very little of it. I was quite full by then anyway.


Dessert time! This is the Steamed "Nian Gao" with Homemade Pastry. The nian gao was all right though I miss the taste of the nian gao made by my grand aunties when I was a child. The pear shaped pastries were lovely, the outside was crumbly and it was filled with lotus paste.


The last item was the Double Boiled Aloe Vera with White Fungus. It was commendable that this dessert was not too sweet. 

That wraps up my family reunion dinner. We were all stuffed to the brim and there was more eating to come in the following days!

22 comments:

  1. Wow! So much food for 8 pax because it was meant for 10 pax. Were you all able to finish all the food? I guess there may be rice still available by at the end because everyone should be quite full by then but keeping space for desserts. Shi zi is lion in mandarin. tou is head so shi zi tou is lion head due to the meatballs looking like lion's head.

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    1. Thanks for the translation! You are right, there were leftovers - the rice and a bit of the abalone dish. The rest, we all sapu hee..hee..

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  2. Good grief!!! That is so expensive but as long as the food is top class, it is perfectly ok. After all, it comes only once a year. Most places do not open here, have to collect the dishes yourself by noon and take home...and by evening, when everyone sits down to eat, the food is already cold. Not a great idea to get the food from restaurants.

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    1. Yes, the restaurants make good money during this season. The food was very good, so it was worth it. No need to slave in the kitchen with all the washing up. Phew!

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  3. I dont mind eat out. No need to cook amd clean. Haha.

    What a feast. I like the look of the prawns and dessert.

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    1. More relaxed except that there were so many people. But service was good, so it was all right.

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  4. Eating a CNY reunion dinner outside is very chaotic these days (now that it has become more acceptable and more and more people opt to eat out)...even with reservations one has to wait...haiz! :( At RM1388, I must say that this is a very reasonably-priced CNY set dinner (maybe even among some of the cheapest around coz most are closer to RM2k)...and for the price, the dishes you got was certainly more than decent. I thought it rather strange for the fish to be served whole (as they're preferred for these type of auspicious dinners)...was it served already cut up? O_o P/S: I see your parents came to you instead of you to them...good for you, no need to brave the traffic home :) Well, for the second year, we did not balik kampong and had a reunion at home and brought my mother-in-law from the nursing home for the makan. ^_~

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    1. I suppose this is the time when restaurants make a kill. The price came to RM1.6K after ++ when my sister-in-law went to settle the bill. The fish was already chopped up when served. More convenient to eat and it was so fresh and good. Yup, my parents came over. In fact, it would be more work for mum if we all went back to KT hah..hah.. Good to know that you did not have to brave the traffic and that your MIL could join the dinner at home.

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  5. Eating out would be nice but the dinner sets cater for 10 people. Your reunion dinner looks very delicious.

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    1. Yes, minimum 10 people. Since we are big eaters we almost finished everything.

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  6. My mom never like eating out during cny as she says it is always crowded, have to wait very long and expensive plus the standard may drop due to mass production and time constraint, so she always cook during cny.

    Braised meatballs and steamed nian gao for me. Hee hee.

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    1. I miss the reunion dinners that my grandma used to cook. Ah..gone are the days. You are fortunate that you mum cooks during CNY.

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  7. Your reunion dinner's price is very reasonable for a ten persons portion.

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    1. When converted to SGD, it is very affordable hah..hah...

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  8. that's a reasonable price for a luxurious meal...very generous portion and nice quality dishes.

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    1. The best part is after eat, can just walk away, no dishes to wash hah..hah..

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  9. While I like home cooked food, I just don't want to do the cleaning up - especially on a holiday! Best idea is to eat out!

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  10. It's still not too late to wish you Gong Xi Fa Cai and may the Year of Rat brings abundance of health and wealth to you and your family!
    We had our CNY reunion dinner at home this year, which was steamboat. Although it was crazy to have steamboat for the scorching weather, but the vibe of the togetherness of the whole family, worthy!
    As my experiences, the food for reunion meal at restaurants normally are quite "suck" due to the busy schedule of the kitchen team. But you're lucky that you had a wonderful reunion dinner this year. Is this a new restaurant as I never see this name before, at least not those big chain Chinese restaurants that I've known.

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  11. LL....Happy Chinese New Year to u and family.....sori lambat wish....
    Wahhh semua menu mmg nampak sedap tu. Lagi sedap bila makan satu family, lagi sedap sebab kita tak payah masak hahaha...
    Baju baru dah habis pakai ke belum hihi

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